Park and Recreation Commission
Minutes of the Meeting
February 13th, 2013
Meeting called to order: 7:45 pm.
Commissioners in Attendance: Rob O’Connor, Andy Paterna, George Caye, Sharon Parlapiano, Dan Rezende, Dan Van Horn, John Caldwell and Ray Favreau
Also in Attendance: Gary Bazzano
Approval of Minutes: Jan. Minutes Approved.
Public Input: None
Report of Council Liaison: The Town Council has scheduled a special meeting on Feb. 25th at 7pm in Town Council Chambers to discuss the forming of a 63-20 corporation as a potential funding mechanism. The Town’s Bond Counsel will be present to answer questions. PARC asked Gary if they council could put together a list of other towns that have used a 63-20 and what the purpose was to form the corporation. They should have a sheet at the meeting for the public. Ray informed the group that it was his understanding that a 63-20 could only be used once for any specific project (Field Development or Rec. Center) in a community and wanted to know if this is still the case.
Field Committee met 2 weeks ago and has sent questions to the bond committee and the Town Attorney. The total cost for the project is 3 million but it could be brought down to 2 million if some of the projects are removed.
OSTF: John attended the last meeting with discussion focused on a portion of the Dzen family farm which is a five acre parcel scheduled to be an open space acquisition as part of the Mannarino subdivision. It has been requested that a Dzen grandson be granted life use of the 2 acre blueberry portion without any farm lease fees. The task force was against this proposal and thought the land should be turned over to the town as open space as originally planned and could still be farmed as a lease to farm which the town does with other open space areas.
Report of the Parks & Rec. Director:
- Storm Update: The town purchased a snow bucket for the Bobcat and it has been used everywhere for the last storm. The town did a great job with the road, sidewalk and lot clean-up. The park areas like the Bark Park, Desmond’s Pond and other areas will be cleaned up later in the week.
- Little League Complex: All the debris on Major B was removed before the snow storm. Only the foundation of the first base dugout was saved and will need to be rebuilt.
- New Rec. Center: Al Larson spoke with Ray and asked that we approach the Town Council about forming a subcommittee for building a new Rec. Center in South Windsor. Al wanted us to keep going to the Town Council meetings to maintain a presence and suggest the need for a new Rec. Center so they will not easily forget about the need for a new center. Ray suggested that the Town Council propose a resolution forming a subcommittee comprised of two Town Council members one from each side along with PARC members and parks & recreation staff members to research and gather information on a potential new Rec. Center. A motion was made and seconded to have Gary Bazzano ask the Town Council to propose a resolution forming a subcommittee of no more than ten members to study and present a model for a new Recreation
Center for the Town of South Windsor, with which the Town Manager could then go out for an RFP as the Council wishes. The motion was seconded. This was voted on and passed unanimously.
- The new Parks & Rec. Magazine will be coming out next week. The Rec. Dept. will start summer registration on March 1st this year.
- POOL SAFETY: Ray and Jaime attended a public hearing on potential pool safety standards at the Legislative Office Building on Feb. 7th. He stated the issues center around the School settings due to two drownings at public high schools in the last year (Manchester & East Hartford) and doesn’t want any legislation effecting Recreation Swimming Services.
- Pesticide Use: The issue (Bill H.B. 6385) is back on the Legislative agenda banning the use of any pesticides on all public and private schools. Ray will be speaking at the Legislative Building onFeb.15th against the passing of this bill.
- Matt Galligan is working to have the vacant Parks crew positions filled.
- Budget: The shortfall for this year is around $800,000 for the town. The town has already taken $20,000 from the Boundless Playground account leaving only $16,000 for repairs. They may take $150,000 of $200,000 in the PARC Master Plan Capitol Projects Account. That is not certain at this time. Ray will know more by next month. This may be needed to reduce shortfall for this fiscal year. With $150,000 removed from our account, Ray submitted a three year plan to the Capitol Projects Committee putting all the projects from the failed referendum back into the plan.
Ray will be presenting his Parks and Recreation Budget to the Town Council on Monday March 4th at 7 pm. He is asking all PARC members to attend to support this year’s budget. The Parks and Recreation Divisions will each be at a 0% increase while the Recreation Special Revenue Fund, which is consumer driven and not from Town taxes, will be up 14.5%. This increase is primarily is due to the BOE early release program on Wednesday for the School year 2013/14. Ray will also need more staff for the 4th R to accommodate growth as kindergarten is expected to be full-day next year.
- Skate Park: Ray has contracted with Hard Core Design for building the Skate Park. They will be meeting in the next couple weeks with 8 kids from the Skate Group about design. If they are contracted to build the park they could have it up and running by early this summer.
- Connectors: Parks Dept. has completed the connector paths that were on the list from the Town Council and are working on the Master List from SWWWW. Two more are being worked on now but are on hold until the snow removal is done.
SWW&WW: SWW&WW’s Full Moon Walk had about thirty people attend. A great success in the freezing temps. CT Trail Days is set for June 2nd at the Wild Life Sanctuary. The bike education program for the 4th graders is set for this year and is supposed to be put in the BOE budget for next year. The group was thinking of names for the project and is suggesting “Bobcat Bikes”. When the trailer is purchased a Bobcat could be painted on the side.
SW Food Alliance: Next meeting is Feb. 26th at 7pm in room 206 at the Community Center. Andy went to the CT Health Food System Alliance meeting. This is a group of about 30 towns working on different food avenues for towns (Farmers Markets, School Food programs, Green Roof Projects etc.). SWFA can use their ideas for other projects in South Windsor. The group is in discussions with the Historical Society about taking over the Summer Farmers Market this summer. Andy is working on getting the market at the Community Center on the grass area by the Boundless Playground. They would also change to Saturdays instead of Sundays starting in late June and going to late October. The Winter Market will be at the Unity Church again on Saturdays taking a break through
the holidays and going through to late February.
New Business: Rob would like the group to think about updating the original PARC Master Plan which is now 13 years old. Ray was recently in touch with Stantek (they did the original Master Plan at a cost of $35,000) and will ask them about cost to revamp the old plan. He would then go to Town Council to ask for the upgrade of the Master Plan.
Rob also would like to inquire about the purchase of a Smart Board for use at meetings. If we could get purchase a portable one and get IT to help with the installation it would save time at future meetings when looking at open space and other areas in town, and reduce the need for hard copy packets each month.
Motion made and seconded to adjourn.
Meeting adjourned at 10:25 pm
Next Meeting: 7:30pm Mar.13th, 2013
Respectfully Submitted
George S. Caye
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